Goals Soccer share sale to raise £16.75m

Mark Jones, CEO at Goals Soccer Centres

East Kilbride-based Goals Soccer Centres said it has conditionally raised £16.75 million through a sale of 16.75 million new ordinary shares in the company for £1 each.

The new shares would represent 28.6% of the company’s existing issued share capital.

Goals also said it had completed a strategic review of the company’s operations.

Last week, Goals appointed casinos and pubs executive Mark Jones as its new chief executive officer following a turbulent year in which its share price has lost more than half of its value.

Jones, 55, will join the firm on July 1 from the Rank Group, where he was managing director of Grosvenor Casinos and sat on the company’s executive committee. 

Further, Goals said this week that Inter Milan chief executive Michael Bolingbroke is joining the firm as senior independent non-executive director on June 13.

The firm said its bookrunner on Friday conditionally placed 16.75 million shares “with existing and new institutional investors.”

Goals said the share placing is conditional upon — “amongst other things” — shareholder approval at the firm’s general meeting on June 22.

The placing price represents a discount of 3.4 % to the closing mid-market price of 103.5p per share on June 2.

The company said in a stock market statement: “The net proceeds of the placing will be used by the company to primarily fund the following strategic priorities: (i) arena modernisation catch-up programme; (ii) clubhouse refurbishment programme; (iii) committed US pilot site; and (iv) deleverage the balance sheet.”